Guidance on Reporting Gender, Sex, Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation, and Age

As we have previously acknowledged, terminology, usage, and word choice are critically important in medical and scientific publication, particularly when describing people. Inclusive language recognizes diversity and conveys respect, but noninclusive language may convey bias toward or against persons or groups based on their assumed or self-identified characteristics or demographics and must be avoided. Guidance on use of terms to describe gender, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, and age in medical and scientific publication must address and balance challenging concepts and goals to promote clarity, inclusiveness, respect, and fairness. People should not be reduced to or limited by a single characteristic, as any characteristic likely intersects with other demographic characteristics and aspects of identity. However, consistent terminology is needed to describe characteristics, individuals, and populations, especially in reports of medical and health research as well as review and opinion articles. Although researchers and scholars, editors, journals, publishers, and others have improved the assessment and reporting of gender, sex, age, and other sociodemographic factors in research and scholarly publication, more work is needed to expand and clarify the role and reporting of these characteristics in medical and health research and publication.